Monarch Mountain gearing up for a successful season
SALIDA, Colo. (KRDO) -- Monarch Mountain opened for its 2022-2023 season Dec. 1 and it's already thriving.
"It's the place I learned to snowboard," Colorado Springs snowboarder Joshua Hanlon said. "It's always been the local secret that everybody coming into town they go to Denver, they take I-70. They go to everything else, they don't come down here. It's always a bit more quiet. You get the variety of runs like a big resort has, but like today there's no one here, and everyone I've met is from within 2-3 hours away."
"It's fairly close to where I live, it's only a couple hour drive," Colorado Springs snowboarder Connor Trolle said. "It's scenic the whole way through too. So you enjoy the drive, you enjoy the day, and enjoy the drive home too. The whole way here you've got a beautiful view. Especially if you leave in the morning. We left at 6 to come up, and as we were coming through because we were coming south through Canon City its a beautiful sunrise the whole way. So you really do enjoy the drive the whole way up."
Monarch is independently owned by 16 people that are all avid skiers. The customers are very special to them, and most of the employees are ex-guests.
"They're not into it for the money, they're into it for the adventure and experience of skiing," Monarch Mountain marketing director Dan Bender said. "Everybody thats involved in the group really loves this mountain, they love the people. There's a different vibe to monarch. Our customers are special and so are our employees. Most of our employees are ex guests. So we're all the same breed. A lot of our guests have a sense of ownership here. This is their mountain, and we stand out of the way and let it be that. We want the locals, whether its Front Range, Salida, Buena Vista, we want this to feel like it's your mountain."
"It's the same distance from Colorado Springs as all the other resorts," Hanlon said. "Two to three hours. Just the feel of it, you feel like you're here with the locals, its never too packed. The variety beats some of those bigger resorts."
"I wait 6 months out of the year just so I can come back here to go up and down the hill 100 times," Trolle said. "It's the best part of the winter season. First choice all the time, every season I want to come here. I don't buy season passes elsewhere, I get passes to here."
As of Dec. 9, 31 runs are open out of their 64.
"For being a mountain that doesn't make snow we're looking really good for this time of year," Bender said. "We have close to 50% of the mountain open now. We're running the pioneer lift, the tumblino lift, panorama lift in midway, and then our beginner caterpillar lift. So 3 chairs and a surface lift."
Crews worked over the summer to cut out fallen trees and rocks in the tree islands to get more of the mountain open earlier this year.
"We had some projects during the summer," Bender said. "The mountain crew went out and did a cut and buff on the mountain. As everyone knows, we've been losing our trees over the last few years. I think we're done with that part."
One new aspect this year, a snowboard exhibit at the resort which opens Sunday Dec. 11 in the lower lodge area. Local artists decorated re-purposed rental snowboards. The public can come view them all season long for free with a resort pass. They can also purchase a board, which goes directly to the artist.
"Monarch mountain is an independent mountain and we recognize our independent artists," Monarch Mountain event manager Kathryn Wadsworth said. "Our artist community in Salida is very important to the community and we wanted to celebrate them and provide this opportunity for their free-riding spirits to design and showcase their artwork. We're very excited to be working with our local artists for the snowboard exhibition. It's unique to the ski industry. We think it's neat within our lodge to have an art display celebrating our local artists."
Tickets and passes are available now. Visit the Monarch Mountain website for more information, or to purchase a pass.
